Compromised
by CouncilOfEvil
Summary: After MI6 receive data about G.L.O.V.E from Artemis Section, they decide to send two 15 year old CHERUB agents in undercover where G.L.O.V.E least expects: H.I.V.E. However, the agents aren't villainous by nature, and might just have trouble fitting in... Much of the story will be H.I.V.E based, so don't worry too much if you haven't read CHERUB.
1. Chapter 1 - A call from Darkdoom

**Chapter One**

Doctor Nero reclined in his desk chair and sighed. Today had not been a perfect day by any stretch of the imagination. It had started decently, but a surprise incident involving Franz Argentblum, Professor Pike and an oversized African snail had resulted in a panicked four hour security lockdown, which soon put a stop to his good mood.

Such events were par for the course at the Higher Institute of Villainous Education, and on some days he might have amused by it, but the recent death of student Tom Ransom, and the Alpha stream massacre that had preceded it was still badly affecting the mood of the school. Four hours stuck in safe rooms while the security team frantically tried to contain the snail in question before it reached the biotechnology department didn't exactly help raise spirits.

Nero was hoping that he could now relax, but as he poured himself a glass of whisky, he received a call on his blackbox from the communication technician.  
"Doctor Nero sir, we've got a call from Mr Darkdoom on the line. He says it's important."  
"Put him through then." Nero said dejectedly. At this moment, he really didn't care what Darkdoom wanted, but he owed it to his old friend to hear him out.

"Max, how are things?" Darkdoom smiled as his holographic image flickered to life in front of Nero's desk. Nero smiled grimly.  
"Fine thank you Diabolus, but if you don't mind skipping the small talk, I've had one hell of a day."  
"Of course" Diabolus chuckled sympathetically. He had had encounters with only six of the H.I.V.E students at a time, and that had been an eye opening experience to say the least. He couldn't imagine trying to run a whole school full of them. "What exactly happened?"  
"Let's just say Mr Argentblum won't be trying any prototype escargot ovens for the foreseeable future. Now, if we could get to business?"

"After the pursuit earlier this year, I've been looking into Artemis Section's activities concerning Otto. We didn't manage to get anything from them, however the British did."  
"MI6?"  
"Yes, it would seem they took notice of the feelers put out by Mr Flack. Turns out anything the President's is interested in, they're interested in. We know that they put in a request for disclosure, and all the data files were transferred to MI6 via a highly encrypted link."

Nero put his head in his hands. "This could be a disaster for us. Do we know what Artemis Section has uncovered?"  
Darkdoom shook his head. "We don't have operatives inside Artemis section, since we've always had the Overwatch satellites if we needed to find people. All we know is that the files were transferred straight to the British Intelligence minister. This was a week ago."  
Nero furrowed his brow "He hasn't shown anybody since? That would indicate there wasn't anything interesting in the data."  
"Probably," Darkdoom nodded "But if he has shown anybody, it's obviously to a branch of intelligence we don't even know about, which would be more worrying. Either way we should be on our guard."  
"Very well, I'll brief the council tomorrow. Goodnight Diabolus."  
"Goodnight Max."

The hologram slowly dissolved, and Nero looked down at his now empty whisky glass. He wasn't usually a heavy drinker, but suddenly he felt an unusual urge to pour a second shot. It had been a long day.


	2. Chapter 2 - Dining Hall

**Chapter Two**

**Cherub Campus Dining Hall, Somewhere in England**

15 year old Mortimer Grey was quite fond of his face. It gave him a quiet air of maturity but wasn't really nerdy enough to draw attention from bullies and besides he used it to see and smell, both fairly useful abilities in today's changing world. That was why he was quite dismayed to see a pretty large object hurtling towards it at a rather alarming speed.

Had the world been moving in slow motion, Mortimer would probably have reflected further on the pros of having a face, maybe even briefly outlined the cons of life without one. However the laws of time were as per usual behaving normally, and so Mortimer only had time to utter a panicked "What the f-" before it hit him. He didn't even get to finish his swear word.

Mortimer instantly clawed at his face, eager to check it was all in one piece. However, to get to his face, he had to reach through a cold gooey substance. Some of the substance entered his mouth, and he realised the object in question had been a trifle. He stopped panicking at this point, and instead wiped the trifle off his face with a scowl.  
"Gary!" he moaned, "Wasn't this morning's porridge enough?"

Garry grinned "You found that funny!" he said "I thought it could be our thing."  
"Our thing?"  
"Yeah, you know like an in-joke." He explained.  
"You thought I'd consider you constantly throwing food at me as an _in-joke_?" Mortimer goggled incredulously. "For heavens sake Gary, you've never exactly been the brightest of the bunch, but this is a new low!"

Gary's face dropped "I guess now you put it like that it does sound a bit...well you know, a bit-"  
"Dolt headed? Ridiculous? Downright moronic? Absolutely ludicrously i-" Mortimer was interrupted mid flow by another trifle to the face.  
"Oh for god's sake."

On the other side of the CHERUB dining hall, fellow 15 year old Emily Merryweather sat chatting with her friends. Well, her friends were chatting, she was too busy imagining her dream future as the Prime Minister of Great Britain. After the disastrous press conference a few years ago that caused the collapse of the then current government and the shock resignation of his successor Duncan Cavendish, she thought she could do a better job than any of the countries recent leaders. It helped that she genuinely cared about the citizens she dreamed of leading.  
Emily's daydreams were rudely interrupted when she was slapped by her best friend Charlotte. "Em!"  
"What?"  
"Errm, Meryl's been calling you for the past minute? Don't tell me you didn't hear her?

Emily looked over and saw her handler Meryl standing by the door. Meryl rolled her eyes.  
"I said, Mortimer and Emily to the mission control building please!" She shouted impatiently. "John Jones wants to speak with you".

"A mission?" asked Emily as she walked over.  
"I don't know." Meryl replied, "But the chairwoman's there, so whatever it is, it's big."


	3. Chapter 3 - Briefing

**Chapter Three**

**Cherub Campus, Mission Preparation Room 2**

John Jones smiled as the two teenagers entered his office. "Mortimer, Emily take a seat. Can I offer you tea, coffee?" Mortimer asked for some tea, and John got up to make it. As he put the kettle on to boil, the door to the room swung open, and CHERUB chairman Zara Asker and a suited man with a large briefcase and an even larger frown walked into the room.

"Sorry I'm late." Zara smiled apologetically, "I had to get Mr Ellis here a visitor's pass".  
Mr Ellis scowled. "Bloody ridiculous that I was held up like that. I'm the intelligence minister for pity's sake!" Zara turned to him with annoyance.  
"As I explained Sir, you may be my superior, but without a CRB check on your record you need a visitor's pass. You made the rule."

Mr Ellis looked like he was about to explode, so John Jones made an attempt to diffuse the situation. "Mortimer, Emily, this is Mr Ellis, the intelligence minister. He and Zara are supervising personally, given the importance of the mission."  
Emily looked him over, and decided that should she ever become prime minister, her first action would be to fire him.

"I've prepared your mission briefings; it'd probably be quicker if you just read them. He walked over to a locked safe in the corner of the room, and took out two sheaths of paper. Eager to find out what the mission was, Mortimer and Emily took the paper and began to read.

_***CLASSIFIED MISSION BRIEFING***  
FOR MORTIMER GREY AND EMILY MERRYWEATHER  
THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED WITH A RADIO  
FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TAG. __ANY__ ATTEMPT  
TO REMOVE IT FROM THE MISSION PREPARATION  
BUILDING WILL SET OFF AN ALARM.  
DO __NOT__ PHOTOCOPY OR TAKE NOTES._

Mission Background – Otto Malpense

Last year, a CIA operative named Robert Flack discretely contacted the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) requesting any data the government held on a teenager named Otto Malpence. After investigation, it became clear that Flack worked for Artemis Section, a branch of US intelligence devoted to finding people of interest. As Artemis Section answer only to the President, their activities are of significant interest.

After a small amount of searching turned up no record of the individual, MI6 almost closed the case, however after questions of benefit fraud arose surrounding an orphanage carer, a search of her premises turned up a hard copy of a home schooling application for a child of that name, despite no digital copy on government servers. After questioning, the carer admitted that the child had travelled to the seaside. After questioning his hotel it was discovered that he was last seen on the day of the former Prime Ministers embarrassing press conference.

After this evidence turned up, a subsequent police investigation into the temporary disappearance of a Mr and Mrs Brand and their baby son showed evidence that their daughter had disappeared that day, after a large security breach at a nearby military airbase. Relaying this information to the CIA, MI6 received word that Laura Brand had been seen in conversation with Otto Malpense and wanted criminal Maximillion Nero on separate occasions. A full investigation showed that many other teens had disappeared that day every year most of whom were connected to some form of criminal activity.

As Maximillion Nero has connections to crime cartel G.L.O.V.E, as shown by the H.O.P.E broadcasts last year, the obvious conclusion is that G.L.O.V.E are kidnapping youths to some sort of training facility for young criminals. Presenting their findings to the CIA, MI6 agreed to take down G.L.O.V.E using this discovery, in exchange for the capture of Otto Malpense.

The CHERUB mission  
The Cherubs will pose as children of two different families, and will conduct a staged, but spectacular criminal activity. This should be sufficient to attract the attention of G.L.O.V.E. Once inside the training facility, the Cherubs will gather evidence and attempt to transmit their location to control. After the successful capture of Otto, and hopefully his associate Nero, MI6 will wind down G.L.O.V.E operations worldwide, with the assistance of the CIA.

THE CHERUB ETHICS COMMITTEE REFUSED TO AUTHORISE THIS MISSION  
HOWEVER THE INTELLIGENCE MINISTER HAS PERSONALLY OVERRIDDEN THE DECISION.  
THE COMMITTEE REQUESTED ANY MISSION CANDIDATES CAREFULLY  
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:

(1) This mission is classified as VERY HIGH RISK. Cherubs will be in an unknown location, with an unknown level of danger.  
(2) Because of the unknown location, it may not be possible to withdraw from the mission.  
(3) G.L.O.V.E operatives may use criminal propaganda. Agents must be prepared to face this.  
(4) Otto Malpense has been involved in several near death experiences in the field. It is possible that a CHERUB agent may be put in this situation.

"So?" asked John, "What do you say?"  
"I can't speak for Emily" Mortimer replied. "But I have no super close friends on campus. I may as well do something worthwhile."  
They turned to Emily, but she was already signing the waiver. She didn't say so, but she reckoned impressing the intelligence minister would be a good way of kick-starting her political career.  
"Well then," said John "Looks like we have a mission."

As John and the teens left to prepare their new identities, Mr Ellis looked at Zara with distain. "This could be the single greatest success for MI6 in decades Mrs Asker. Not to mention directly pleasing the President. Do not allow your operatives to mess this up."  
Zara may have had level one security clearance and a job running one of British intelligence's most secret services, but even she quailed under Ellis's steely glare.

"Don't worry Sir. I won't."


End file.
